Prince Albert comes up with a royally creative solution to Queen Victoria's modesty concerns in this true story that reveals an overlooked splash of history.
Poor Queen Victoria! She loves to swim, but can't quite figure out how to get to the water without her devoted subjects glimpsing her swimming suit. (Because, of course, such a sight would compromise her regal dignity.) Fortunately for the water-loving monarch, it's Prince Albert to the rescue with an invention fit for a queen!
This quirky tale about the longest reigning monarch in British history is as fun as it is authentic, and the book includes a picture of the actual bathing machine Prince Albert created.
Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine by Gloria Whelan; illus. by Nancy Carpenter How could Queen Victoria get into the sea on a hot day? Modesty decreed that she mustn't be seen in her bathing costume. It's Prince Albert to the rescue with a queen-sized bathing machine--large enough to fit the queen and her lady-in-waiting, and with wheels to roll it into the sea, where the waters would conceal Her Majesty. This entertaining story nicely encapsulates a curious bit of social history, though its glimpse of the royal family is as much fantastical as realistic, with a jaunty tall-tale tone governing a rhymed text (delighted with his creation, Prince Albert crows, "Let me tell you, my dear, what I propose. / You enter the back door wearing all of your clothes. / Off comes your dress, off come your rings, / off come all those unmentionable things"). Carpenter ably limns eight or so children in lively attendance, riding globes or peering through telescopes while Albert studies catapults or "old wars both Spartan and Punic." The stifling frills and furbelows of Victorian dress; the loving couple's delight in each other; and jacket art of the queen frolicking underwater in her voluminous black swimming costume, a minnow in her crown--Carpenter renders each in comical detail. A concluding note features a present-day photo of the commodious vehicle. A bibliography of Victoriana for various ages is appended.-- "Horn Book"
* Queen Victoria is ready to break free from the constraints of life at the top (including literal ones, like corsets) and take a swim in the ocean. But that would never do given the mores of the era named after her--until her beloved husband Albert hits on a solution: a covered wooden cart with an undressing room that can be rolled into the sea, allowing the swimmer to discreetly enter the water. "No one will get so much as a peep," Albert assures her, "except for the creatures down in the deep." Whelan's (Homeless Bird) rhyming bounds along with a crackle worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan, and Carpenter's (Big Bear's Big Boat) digital drawings are sublime. Her portrait of a loving marriage (which includes a scene of the Queen and Her Consort canoodling--in their nightgowns!) is every bit as wonderful as the busier scenes in which Albert (with assists from the couple's many children) devises his contraption. But the finest image is the penultimate, which finds an ecstatic Victoria gliding through the lapis water in her swimming costume. Ages 5-8. (Apr.)-- "Publishers Weekly (starred)"
In delightful rhyming prose, Whelan brings history to life recounting an amusing anecdote of Queen Victoria and her bathing machine (currently on display at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight). One hot summer day, the British queen longs to take a refreshing dip in the sea, but her lady-in-waiting is scandalized. "It would be a disgrace/to see more of the queen than her hands and her face." Victoria's devoted husband, Albert, gives all his genius to the problem, promising to come up with a way to transport her unseen from the beach to the water. He discards his first idea involving a catapult, but inspiration strikes in the middle of the night. "Just after midnight/Albert sprang from the bed./A brilliant idea/had come to his head." He starts working on his invention the next morning, constructing a portable dressing room on wheels. Impressed and excited, Victoria dons her bathing suit inside the clever contraption and the bathing machine is then rolled into the sea, whereupon she dives right into the surf and indulges in a glorious swim. The digital artwork deftly portrays the loving relationship shared by Victoria and Albert. Comical details and the inclusion of the royal couple's nine mischievous children in many of the scenes add to the fun. For a royal day out at the library, pair this outstanding title with Celeste Davidson Mannis's The Queen's Progress (Viking, 2003).-- "School Library Journal, March 1, 2014"
Gloria Whelan is an award-winning and critically acclaimed author of many books for children and young adults. She won the National Book Award for young people's literature for her novel Homeless Bird. A versatile author of historical and contemporary fiction for children and young adults, as well as short stories and poetry for adults, Whelan is, according to Liz Rosenberg in the Chicago Tribune, "an accomplished, graceful, and intelligent writer." She lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and you can visit her at GloriaWhelan.com.
Nancy Carpenter is the acclaimed illustrator of Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt, Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine, Fannie in the Kitchen, and Loud Emily, among other books. Her works have garnered many honors, including two Christopher Awards and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at NancyCarpenter.website.
Target Age: 5-8
Simon & Schuster/ Paula Wiseman Books
Pub Date: May 06, 2014
0.45" H x 8.73" L x 11.37" W
40 pages
hardcover